Declan Rice makes Arsenal Premier League title promise after Man City disappointment

Declan Rice has called on his Arsenal teammates to "live with this feeling" of missing out on the Premier League title and use it as motivation for next season.

Despite a near-flawless run in 2024, with Arsenal securing 16 wins from 18 games, Manchester City edged them out by two points, clinching the title after their victory over West Ham. Arsenal's own efforts saw them snatch a late win against Everton, with Kai Havertz netting an 89th-minute winner, but it wasn't enough to topple City, who had previously won their crucial game in hand against Tottenham.

Reflecting on his first season at Arsenal, Rice said: "The last few weeks have been so whirlwind in terms of the emotions, the feelings we’ve had, watching other games, playing our games. It’s not something I want to experience again, but it’s an experience I’m so grateful to have had being in my first title race. It’s been so special.

“To not win it is gutting, but we can’t rely on other teams to help us out. We have to look back on ourselves and games where we dropped points. That is ultimately where we’ve lost the league, but we’ll be back.

“We’re really confident as a group and you see the manager has full control of everything. I’m sure we’ll be stronger in the summer.”

Arsenal had pushed City close in the 2022-23 campaign but endured a poor finish and lost the title by five points. Nonetheless, the summer signings of heavyweights' Havertz from Chelsea and Rice for £100 million have propelled the Gunners further this season. Record-breaking tally of wins (28) and points (89), along with scoring the highest goals (91) and conceding the fewest goals (29), all signal their remarkable progress under Arteta's structured leadership.

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However, there will be no respite over the summer as Arteta demands more from his team and captain Martin Odegaard swears to make a remarkable comeback. "There were a few of us walking around at the end there and we said that feeling we have now in our stomach, of losing out on a title and seeing them lift it again, starting from (Monday) and going through the summer, we need to have that feeling of what today feels like," Rice said on NBC Sports.

"They (City) are four in a row so now if you want to win the Premier League and be hungry, you need to live with this feeling and we don't want to feel this again. We see our fans, how everything was set up, we wanted to enjoy this moment with them, but look, we'll go again.

"We are really confident as a group and I'm sure we will be stronger. That is the challenge of the Premier League. It's getting stronger, it's getting better and I feel like we will be better for it."